It’s been 2 years since we launched our first feature. Since then we’ve served more than 3,000 clients worldwide and achieved a YoY growth of 2x.
We are witnessing the beginnings of AI, a technology that is interpreting and processing data in a way that was only possible for humans. Tomorrow, thanks to Artificial General Intelligence or AGI (the capacity to bring together and make sense of the different outputs of independent AI systems), we will be able to augment human intelligence in order to increase our capacity to fight against disease, evil and social inequality. Our goal is to carry the lead in the effort to build a fully integrated AGI system for real world application. It is the only way to truly provide unique insights to our clients, but also the only way to make those insights actionable in an efficient and effective way. What we learn and what we build will advance the state of the art in AI/AGI for all.
Datagran was born when during my first endeavor it was time to put together our data ecosystem. It was painful to find out we had to install more than 8 different tech stacks to make that possible. Those technologies were products like Google Big Query, Segment, Looker, Heap, ClearBrain, Adroll, Mailchimp, and several others. But not only that, since we had to focus on building our product, it would take more than 2 months to make it work to our specifications. But, what about predictions? Well, we would have had to make those manually without a way to integrate the system end to end.
That’s not how things are supposed to work, and other industries, even those that are much older than the internet, know it. Take for instance the advertising industry. When Ad agencies were born 100 years ago, an agency of record was the one responsible for strategy, creativity and buying ad space. 50 years later, they made the same mistake the tech industry is making now, they began to specialize and as a consequence, PR, media, and ad agencies started to pop up. Fast forward, and about 10 years ago, integrations came back, and agencies of record were now the best way to go if a marketing strategy was to be coherent and effective. Hence, collaboration within departments within a company. This is the only way to make smarter and faster decisions.
We are not building a traditional startup product, nor playing under standard rules. Usually startups are encouraged to build fast, deliver fast and test fast, and that means creating software for a specific vertical. A snowball effect that sometimes results in “superficial products”, as we like to call it. We are going for the long term. Not only because complex products require time, but also because to solidify and claim leadership, one must reach maturity.
With this belief as our core way of work, here is a roadmap of how we will move forward based on our approach:
- We will continue to build a system of record for data that will allow companies to integrate data and analyze, predict and take action in a single pipeline, despite many industry leaders defending the old model of specialized tools. It is almost impossible to generate smart outputs if we keep seeing systems as independent silos.
- We will continue to focus on our customers. They are our North Star.
- We will think in long term value, instead of trying to make a few people happy that strive for short term results.
- We will continue to make bold moves in terms of product, in the quest to bring smarter insights to our clients. Some will work, and many others will not.
- We will continue to focus on building a flawless, high performance product for clients to enjoy.
- We will maintain our lean culture, focusing on profitability instead of cash burn.
- We will be transparent, with our clients, employees and shareholders. If we make mistakes, we will put them out there.
We’ve come along way, it hasn’t been easy, but we have learned a lot. The future is exciting, and we know how it might look. We know we can be a contributor of good. We have seen it, face to face. For that reason, we will persist.
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